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Needle exchange programs are not about enabling drug addicts and encouraging drug use. Some state lawmakers just don't get it.

For the last several sessions, Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, has been trying to educate her colleagues that it's about public safety, reducing health costs and saving lives.

Earlier this month Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, killed legislation introduced by McClendon that would have allowed the establishment of needle-exchange pilot programs in Bexar and in the state's six other largest counties.

Taylor invoked a seldom used motion to prevent the issue from coming back up this session, which means an important piece of legislation is not going to get addressed for another two years.

McClendon retaliated a few days later when she killed a proposal by Taylor to allow the use of a concealed handgun license as a valid form of identification. McClendon used a point of order, something she had never done in 17 years as a state representative.

Antics aside, Texas needs to decriminalize needle exchange programs.

Six years ago, McClendon was successful in attaching an amendment to a Medicaid bill to allow a needle exchange program in Bexar County. The program was shortlived. District Attorney Susan Reed said the language in the legislation could subject workers in needle exchange programs to prosecution under state drug paraphernalia laws.

Needle exchange programs are not new. San Francisco has had one for 25 years; today, there are legal needle exchange program in 35 other states.

Improperly discarded needles pose a risk for law enforcement officers and paramedics, who encounter drug users on a regular basis as part of their jobs. Research has shown that exchanging free, clean and unused needles and hypodermic syringes for used needles and syringes reduces the transmission of disease among drug users.

Bexar County spent more than $6 million on HIV-related care last year, according to committee testimony. In 2006 Bexar County had 200 new HIV cases; about 10 percent of those cases were people who had injected drugs, according to the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. In 2010 there were 254 new HIV cases reported and 12 of those patients reported having injected drugs.

The number of hepatitis C traced to intravenous drug use is also high.

State lawmakers need to educate themselves. This is an expensive and potentially deadly problem that is not going to go away.